Don't worry senators, daily House press cons not a venue to bash you
At A Glance
- The House of Representatives is officially bringing back its daily press conferences, but not for the purpose of attacking their lawmaker-colleagues from the Senate or anybody else.
House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)
The House of Representatives is officially bringing back its daily press conferences, but not for the purpose of attacking their lawmaker-colleagues from the Senate or anybody else.
House Deputy Speaker Isabela 1st district Rep. Tonypet Albano gave this assurance during the press conference Monday, Feb. 19, wherein he addressed some senators' comments about the activity.
“These daily press conferences are never about bashing anyone or any institution, contrary to what some of our counterparts accuse us of doing in the Senate. We also are not doing this daily presscons to propagate nefarious and unhealthy false news to our people," Albano said.
He said the concept of the daily pressers was conceptualized back in June 2022, or the start of the 19th Congress. "We have just now recently deployed and perfected it.”
“These daily presscons are created so that the people will know what the lower house of Congress is doing, what we've achieved, what we've accomplished, and what is pending for us to work on for the good of our beloved country and our people,” noted Albano.
While there have been daily pressers before in past congresses, this is the first time in recent memory that the majority bloc intends to hold them everyday.
The Speaker Martin Romualdez-led House had used such press conferences earlier this month to respond to the tirades of certain senators in connection with the controversial move to amend the 1987 Constitution, particularly its restrictive economic provisions.
The sometimes spicy exchanges between the co-equal legislative chambers have caused its leaders to call for a "ceasefire".
“Although at times, we also need to defend the integrity of our House of Representatives as a respectable institution, and indeed we truly need to correct the lies that are hurled at any member of this August body, we sternly advice our colleagues in the House of the People to go use the high road, and debate and stick to the issues, and try to control their emotions, and not malign people...whether they are civilians or government officials,” he explained.
Albano said these daily briefings also serve as a showcase to let the Filipino people know “how efficient and hard-working their congressmen and congresswomen".
“We intend to show that we in the 'House of the People' have done many things for the betterment of our people and our beloved country,” he said.